Personal Ordinariate erected in Australia

Monday 18 June 2012


ON THE EVENING of 15 June, 2012, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI officially erected the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross under the patronage of St Augustine of Canterbury.

Ordinariates have thus far been erected in England and the United States and are the response of Pope Benedict to Anglicans who have been petitioning the Holy See to enter into full corporate unity with the Catholic Church while retaining essential elements of their heritage.

The first ordination to the Catholic priesthood to serve in the Ordinariate took place this evening at St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth when former Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Bishop Harry Entwistle was ordained a Catholic priest and also named as the first Ordinary.

Following his ordination this evening by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, Fr Harry Entwistle will be the leader of the Personal Ordinariate in Australia. His jurisdiction as the Ordinary is equivalent in law to a Diocesan Bishop.

Fr Entwistle has been serving as a Bishop in Western Australia since 2006, and is married to Jean. They have two adult children.
Fr Entwistle is honoured to have been chosen to lead the Ordinariate and explained that it is a wonderful privilege and step towards unity between the Churches.

“Pope Benedict has made it very clear that unity between Christians is not achieved by agreeing on the lowest common denominator, and those entering an Ordinariate accept the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the authoritative expression of the Catholic faith”, said Fr Entwistle.

“Membership is open to former Anglicans who accept what the Catholic Church believes and teaches; former Anglicans who have previously been reconciled to the Catholic Church but who now wish to reconnect with their Anglican spiritual heritage and those baptised in the Catholic Church who have close family members who belong to the Ordinariate.”

“As the Ordinariate is in organic unity with the Catholic Church, Western and Eastern Catholics are welcome to worship and receive communion in an Ordinariate mass and vice versa”, he said.

More information about Fr Harry Entwistle including his Curriculum Vitae is available at www.catholic.org.au

For media enquiries, please contact Beth Doherty on media@catholic.org.au or 0407 081 256